Renfrewshire Cross Country, Tower Hill, 25.11.17
Greenock Glenpark Harriers hosted this year’s Renfrewshire Cross Country Championships at Tower Hill in Gourock. It was a real team effort from the club to get the course ready for the day, with challenging icy conditions meeting the early morning set up crew! However,come early afternoon the one mile loop around the Tower was in perfect cross country conditions.
The ladies course involved 3 laps to total 3.3 miles and it was a very successful race for our own Harriers. Marian Monk, Suzi Coyle and Lynsey Mooney took home the bronze medal in the ladies race, with Marian Monk’s run earning her an individual bronze in the v40 race and 8th place overall! A great team effort and just reward for the ever enthusiastic Captain Monk. Bellahouston Road Runners took the team gold for the ladies race with 3 of the first 4 runners, and their own Catriona MacDonald taking first place overall.
The men were challenged with 5 laps of the Tower totaling 5.5 miles. The highlight of the day for the men was seeing former club champion Steven Campbell take home the gold medal in the v40 category. Steven was also part of the Glenpark senior men’s team that clinched a bronze medal. They were narrowly pushed into that bronze medal position by only 2 places, with Shaun Lyon, Chris Mooney, Andrew McCall, Daniel Doherty and Andrew White making up the six counters. Shaun Lyon was 5th overall and Chris Mooney also in the top 10 finishing 7th.
Just behind the six counters there was a great battle between John Stevenson and Paul Beaton, with John edging it by just one second, but it was another encouraging run from Paul who has been improving over the last few months.
The men’s team event was won by Inverclyde AC on the day, with them taking the three podium positions as well with Ross Gray, Ryan Gray and John Bell respectively.
In total, 23 runners from Glenpark took on the senior races on the day and many more in attendance to help out. The club would like to extend our thanks to all who helped out on the day and made the event a great success for the club
GGH Juniors at Renfrewshire XC Championships Tower Hill 25/11/17
It was a successful day for our youngsters at a very cold and muddy Tower Hill, where they came away with 2 team medals. It was Bronze for both the Under 15 boys and under 11 girls, whilst Jude Dolan had a storming run to win individual Silver.
The Under 11 girls who won bronze were Maria McCabe the Harriers leading girl in 9th place, followed by Sophie McLaughlin. The final counting place went to the line with Ashlin Monaghan just a stride in front of Leah Knox.
In the U11 boys race Aidan McElwee, after a steady start, came storming through the mud to finish 4th, Euan Johnson and Jack Hay were the other counters in the team who just missed out on the medals.
Jude Dolan had a fantastic run to claim individual silver in the under 13s boys event while Brodie Stone showed plenty of promise on his cross country debut.
It was tough challenge for Francesca McKay and Abbigael Crawford as the Under 13 girls took a step up in distance, especially in the challenging conditions. Both finished strongly and the experience will benefit them in future races.
The under 15s team took bronze with Ewan Ferguson, closely followed by Scott Meechan and new boy Bobby Stone.
Ryan Brown continued his return from injury with another solid performance to finish 5th in the under 17s three mile race.
The severity of the course and conditions meant there were a few non finishers, but all the youngsters deserve great credit for getting out to represent the club.
Results:
U11s 1mile: Aidan McElwee 6.55, Euan Johnson 7.55, Jack Hay 8.14, Nathan Adams 8.25, Connor McCrorie 8.33, Cameron Crawford 8.51, Maria McCabe 8.22, Sophie McLaughlin 9.05, Ashlin Monaghan 9.37, Leah Knox 9.38.
U13s 2miles: Jude Dolan 13.33, Brodie Stone 16.05, Francesca McKay 20.40, Abbigael Crawford 24.03.
U15s 2miles: Ewan Ferguson 13.42, Scott Meechan 13.44, Bobby Stone 18.06
U17s 3miles: Ryan Brown 20.38
3k on the Green 24.11.17
Thanks to Andy McCall for his report on Fridays 3k on the Green, the last one of 2017:
At 11am I wasn’t even sure if I was going to take part but after seeing the starting line up for Saturdays Renfrewshire X-country race I realised I wouldn’t make the top 6 counter got the club, something I haven’t managed since around 2010. With that in mind I set off to take the race on as a tempo run and try to better my time from last month. In October I turned up late and ran 10:40. A time I was actually quite happy with.
